"Top-Seeded Cougars Set Sights on NCCAA National Title"

written by Dave Parsons, Sports Information Director

   The Mount Vernon Nazarene College baseball team will embark on its final trip of the 1999 season when the Cougars head to Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana, for the National Christian College Athletic Association National Tournament that begins on Wednesday.

   MVNC (35-14), the top seed in the 10-team tournament, will be looking for its unprecedented fifth NCCAA national title and its fourth in the decade of the 1990s. The Cougars advanced to the double elimination event by winning all three of its games in the East Region Tournament last week. The team’s pitching staff was dominant in those three contests as MVNC allowed its opponents just five hits over 21 innings.

   The Cougars’ first-round opponent at noon on Wednesday will be the winner of the game between eighth-seeded Oakland City (IN) University and ninth-seeded Hillsdale Freewill Baptist (OK) University. Oakland City (24-20) is the Mid-East Region champion, while Hillsdale Freewill Baptist (23-19) won the Southwest Region Tournament.

   Other first-round games on Wednesday will feature fourth-seeded East Texas Baptist University (23-10), the Central Region champion, versus fifth-seeded Emmanuel (GA) College (29-23), the South Region Tournament winner. Third-seeded Bethel (IN) College (29-18), the North Central Region champion, will take on sixth-seeded Geneva (PA) College (28-20), who received one of the at-large berths in the tournament. Finally, second-seeded Faulkner (AL) University (34-23), the other at-large team in the field, will square off with the winner of the game between seventh-seeded Spring Arbor (MI) College (19-24, the Mid-West Region winner, and tenth-seeded Indiana Wesleyan University (23-30), the tournament host.